27 February 2010

In my last posting I touched on the necessity and inevitability for BN and UMNO in particular to strengthen itself and to win back the trust of the people in general and the voting public in particular.

Never ever depend on the weaknesses of the alternative party to secure and regain the lost seats in the last General Election as it would not be durable and resilient enough to defend future assaults of the opposition parties.

One should appreciate that the opposition is not like the opposition of 2 decades ago but the opposition of the day is already a real alternative to the current ruling government that UMNO leads.

PKR has tasted power in 5 states sharing with its components PAS and DAP and the alternative front is now in the maturing process with intermittent and alternating moments of stone hurling among them.

BUT all those sorrowful quarrels among the PR leaders are all seen as physical hiccups but in principle their followers are still going for one mission that is to replace BN as the government for the people.

The quitting of a few leaders in PR should be taken as normal occurrences for a new and infant coalition.

UMNO (old one) too in its early age used to face similar intricacies in the early fifties when the differences between leaders then, led some of the leaders with religious preferences to quit the party and formed PAS.

Now PAS remains as the oldest Malay Party in place of the original UMNO as the deregistered party was denied its legal revival by Mahathir’s administration in 1988 who formed a then new Party called UMNO (baru) in February in 1988.

On historical and chronological record he(Mahathir) was the last President of UMNO and the first President for the new UMNO.

Let us be watchful over some of the salient and outstanding differences between problems in PR and BN and let us look at the issue as pragmatic as possible and it’s needful to be owned up by the leaders and members of the two political fronts.

Basically as I have said PR is a new political identity formed among the three main opposition parties PAS, DAP and PKR and the front had succeeded in breaking the almost complete dominance of BN, hence took over the control of 5 state governments.

The ruling party was in complete disarray and this situation gave the PR the opportunity to make their existence felt and became the alternative choice to exhausting members of the BN in the last GE.

The bashing on Abdullah Badawi by his predecessor Mahathir made UMNO members themselves voting for the alternative party and Mahathir was the main person to bring drain out the support of UMNO members from BN: just to be sure to injure Pak Lah and force him to retire.

Mahathir himself left UMNO he formed in 1988 and came back when Najib replaced Pak Lah in March last year.

On records of honestly written history Mahathir had deserted the old UMNO and he also derelict the new UMNO he formed but this time only for a brief period as he came back to the fold when Abdullah retired.

While UMNO was on trial from its own doing and became the worse for wear, Pakatan Rakyat became the choice for the people including leaders and members of UMNO in the process of soul searching.

It simply means that the big number of seats that PR secured in the last GE was in actuality does not resemble the genuine support of the people but instead due to the animosity UMNO was fronting.

PR in the states they rule have managed to have considerable grip on the grassroots as the lowest government administrative level ie the JKKK are now mostly controlled by PKR members and leaders at that level.

BN would have to face mounting battle to regain the support of the grassroots in the coming GE and only solid and new disposition of UMNO and BN can offer them a chance to return.

BUT has UMNO changed for the better to exist as a morally dignified party to the eyes of the voting public?

More importantly does anyone believe that there are no troubles and no intra party clumsiness within their leaders especially at the higher echelon?

Are we cock sure that there is no power push and pull over within the party?

This question deserves a bit of deliberation and forethought in my next posting may be, OR maybe not.

22 February 2010

Politics is a medium and intermediary of power. Whoever wins in political pursuit or battle will own and take the mantle to rule, and subsequently possesses the emancipation to formulate policy and follow through with its implementation of those guiding principles.

In a democratic system of government power is gained through the mandate and majority, to the very least with simple majority from the eligible voting population.

However winning the mandate to own power is much less problematical than to preserve it as many who secured power will in essence fight with their own inner selves.

The intensity of battling against own selves is dependent on the degree of purity of the claimed democracy one nation practices.

In a matured democracy, the stability of government is normally more visible as the democratic process is more transparent and the voting public is more accountable for the choice they have decisively made.

In this kind of democracy the government chosen would be an authentic choice of the actual feeling and aspiration of the voters lining up to the polling booths and there are less contaminated by other noxious and venomous elements that influence the spotlessness of pure democracy that is at work.

The western democracy whether we like it or not, is seen to be more transparent, and that crafts fashionable stability as we currently witness in all the eleven Scandinavian countries and states.

The constituent that makes the up-to-the-minute stability and immovability in these nations is what we call as Legitimacy of its Democracy.

Legitimate democracy makes up legitimate and genuine government which in sequence will create genuine stability as the support and the votes acquired is unadulterated by parsimonious elements by the ruling and incumbent parties.

In this matured democracies like the Scandinavian countries democracy does not make John and Mike quarrel seriously even though they have different preferences of choice.

One does not even know who is supporting which party or leader and the General Election goes on, sometime unnoticed by the international community.

Name calling among those offering candidatures is almost unheard of and leadership changes are a normal component of their system.

The candidates of their National Elections are normally personalities perceived to be of high integrity, dignity and decorum.

If they are revealed of their past depraved activities, and there is a change of public perception on them, they would normally discontinue their candidacy without exertion as they take moral ethics as the main ingredient before serving towering public offices.

Any aspirant to serve the public would be meticulously introspecting himself to ensure that he is ethically and morally fit to offer his candidature for any position to serve the public without contempt and derision.

In other simple meaning, it is the legitimacy of the candidacy as clean and approving quality that is of optimum importance for a real and authentic democracy to prevail.

What is said is just bits of important clues of how to build a line of well respected administrators of any nation which want to be respected by their own people and well regarded by international community.

Now let us examine where we are if we are to take these bits of valuable clues as our index or benchmark for our leadership points of references.

Does Najib’s publicity campaign on the Key Performance Index (KPI) has made some references to the bit that is written and does it include the moral ethics as main part of the so-called KPI?

Does he take seriously corruption and power abuse to be in the main parcel of his highly publicized attempt to combat corruption without fear or favor?

OR is he still closing both eyes on any corrupt behavior of his Cabinet lineup and the 18 high profile cases that the public has been promised to be acted upon?

Does he have the enough will to act against his own corrupt personalities whom are dear to him like what the matured democratic leaders of the matured nation can do?

OR has he made any attempt to inspect himself from all those points of references that the real and actual values needed for the goal to transform this country to an advanced nation?

These are some of the salient and pertinent points for our PM to ponder. As it is now, he has been 'manufacturing' promises to all Malaysian as from the moment he took on the mantle.

18 February 2010

I received calls from my friends in Kelantan informing me that a small group of UMNO activist is doing some desperate moves to convince the rural folk of Kelantan to support the idea of Kuala Lumpur offering the compassionate funds (Wang Ehsan) to Kelantan.

This time they issue leaflets and pamphlets to schools for the teachers and school pupils admonishing Tengku Razaleigh for his effort to get the oil Royalty for the oil producing states including Kelantan.

Obviously this small group is supporting the Federal Leaders from Kelantan who are in desperate attempt to mislead the people of Kelantan that they are only fit for to be beggars and just take the Wang Ehsan and keep their mouth shut.

TR’s move apparently cost these leaders a lot, as the move might circumvent their personal advantages and favors from other Federal Leaders. This is all about personal political gains; no more no less.

To them TR’s willingness to stand on stage on the invitation of the NGOs to claim for oil Royalty on last 28th January, exposed their ill intention to trick the Kekantanese by giving wang ehsan, not oil Royalty.

The leaflets issued by this group is a real reflection and an act of desperados. They cannot convince the people through other means despite of controlling the mainstream media and now resorting to cowardice act through pamphleteering with crude contents of lies and fabrication.

In my younger days or late 50s until early 60s I used to read leaflets of politics. BUT those were written and issued by the communist propagandists.

I still remember my grand father Hj Kasim, was telling my uncles not to read those leaflets as it came from communist activists as the whole family were UMNO members and the supporters of Perikatan.

The communists were desperate as they were losing the grip of support from the people and their last available means of defusing the influence of the mainstream media (radio Malaya) was by pamphleteering.

Now pamphleteering is surfacing again in Kelantan over the issue of Royalty for the oil. It is now too obvious that the group of deceivers is using the same tricks of the communists of the early sixties in their propagandist act.

To me this group should talk about it in the open through seminars and forum. Do not do things the communist way.

We have the ‘balai raya’ and the community halls in every village. Just use these facilities and talk about it in the open if you are convinced that your struggles are clean and there is no element of sediments and impurity.

The act of pamphleteering are long obsolete and don’t do it again, as it is too ‘communist-like’ and resembling shameful act of desperados.

The people of Kelantan in the end will know about the whole truth on this issue of oil Royalty and when that truth surfaces no one from the Federal would want to even wink at this group.

As it is now, majority of the Kelantanese are already aware of the real situation about this issue of oil Royalty. No one can hide things from them as from now.

15 February 2010

I had some close acquaintance in Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) as most of them were from UMNO by origin. That is why we can see that the Malay PKR leaders more or less have the same attribute with those in UMNO.

Some of them asked me how I think about them in PKR especially with the recent animosity that has befallen the party especially when Zaharin left the party with big huha last Friday.

I answered them wittingly; I told them, “You are suffering from excessive joy because of the successes you achieved in the last General Election. You must remember excess of joy is harder to bear than any amount of sorrow”.

PKR in actuality has been a successful party. Despite of its infancy the party managed to secure 32 seats in Parliament and that is the biggest recorded representation of a single opposition party in our parliamentary history.

This success made the leadership of PKR to become negligent by not realizing the politicking around him (Anwar) is hiking and mountaineering to immeasurably dangerous level.

This was the actual happening in UMNO because the leadership of 2 decades ago was so focus on developing materialistic community without sufficient watch on the party he managed.

Our leaders were bragging and immodest to self amusing by talking about own successes and no one else in this entire world was better than us.

While the swift industrialization was a success, we have to resign to the fact that we have ignored lot of other ingredients of what we called as nation building.

Social values which were fast deteriorating, the inequitable distribution of wealth and opportunities which created a few gigantic war lords which in turn became the determining dynamic of political facets at all level.

Materialistic political and government implementers truly killed the earnest of honest and responsible and accountable leadership of all turfs of the country’s administration.

By natural sequence corruptions became monumental and mammoth. Nothing can be implemented in orderly manner without compromising the ideal of proper and appropriate mode of deciding to corruptions.

Power became personal to holder to abusive leaders and the war lords would do anything to sustain the power that was wrongly vested to wrong leaders.

Everything was compromised and it went as far as insulting and corroding all basic democratic institutions to indignity including the Judiciary which now perceived to the paraphernalia and tools of corrupt and ungraceful executives and war lords surrounding the power house.

This is the nearest answer as to why the 18 high profile cases which was announced by one of the Cabinet members a while ago is still deep under cover and the Agency that handles corruption now only focused on small cases involving the alternative government which control a few State Governments.

The power is now concentrated in the hands of central government and political leaders. These Federal Leaders can decide everything and the institutions involved do not have the say which once vested on them.

The spirit of Federalism is now ignored and they forget the premise of how this beautiful nation was formed.

The power vested by the sovereign states within the Federation is slowly but surely ignored as if the power of the Central Government can exist by itself without the vesting of power by the sovereign state governments.

If PR is serious to exist as an alternative to BN government the coalition has to understand and digest this issue up to the optimum, and there can be no stable Federation without respecting the basic fabric of what Federalism is all about.

PR can’t be there just for the sake of being there. Learning from other people’s mistake is the best way of learning rather than going through the mills of learning through own mistakes and misadventures.

The party which is given the mandate to take the mantle on Federal Government must be able to be magnanimous and respect the spirit of democracy which is now dilapidating speedily in the process to acquiring and retaining power.

For UMNO and BN they should look on this long neglected issue if they still want to be with the mandate given by the people.

Just count the votes in the coming GE and respect the voters by giving the best of administration which the people have longed to secure. They have been missing it far too long.

14 February 2010

Zaharin Hashim's resignation from all party posts in PKR and simultaneously left the party last Friday was expected and we must accept his move without bolt from the blue.

His persona non grata with Guan Eng made him to decide leaving his party and be an independent MP even though rumors are rife that he has the intention of joining UMNO.

His displeasure to his own party in facing disciplinary action made him offended for not siding him in his personal row with Guan Eng.

Apparently he has many issues mostly personal against Guan Eng and for that reason he name called Guan Eng with all superlatives with vengeance and malicious intents.

Now he wants the people to be on his side of the divide for failing to get what he wants from Guan Eng, and this irritates many quarters in Penang from all sides, the island and the mainland.

I am not going to touch on personal matters, but it suffices to mention that his move was seen and perceived by the quarters who know the actual, as completely personal in nature.

He is rumored to be joining the ruling UMNO but if it happens it is not coming with astonishment as UMNO is so typical in harping for the jump ships to add on to their respective representations in the Legislative Assemblies both in the States and the Federal.

If UMNO accepts him than the party is adding on to the list of irrelevant leaders, which the party is already impregnated with.

Accepting him in UMNO would only invite intra-party problems especially so in Penang, which in consequent would only append an additional animosities which he would bring from PKR.

AND in parallel it helps DAP and the PR in Penang in their process of cleaning the coalition of few ‘bad hats’ who has been haunting the state leadership.

Now Zaharin can bark and growl as much as he wishes from outside and for the first time Zaharin is doing good favor for the PR government in Penang by his predictable move to leave PKR.

The state PR leaderships are apparently relieved the moment Zaharin announced his resignation and now they can focus on building the party to greater height.

Guan Eng and the state leaders instantaneously went to Bayan Baru to furnish detail briefing on the issue to the constituents and now Zaharin is seen to be leaving indecorous and negative inherent to the people of the constituency he represents since 2008.

Now, will UMNO accepts Zaharin to be in its fold? If UMNO wants to add an additional seat in Parliament accepting Zaharin is just what the party should do.

BUT can Zaharin make up a good member for UMNO? If he can ill treat a partner who has brought him to the level which he has never dreamt of, what can guarantee he is going to behave differently if he is in UMNO?

UMNO is already saddened by many misfits and to call for Zaharin to join UMNO, it would only add to the pranks and tomfoolery of UMNO.

If Zaharin is accepted in UMNO it concurs to the adage, ‘good is for the good and the bad are for the bad’.

09 February 2010

This short write up is to answer one commentator (Daniel) in my blog asking me why I am too quiet about the current Anwar’s court case and he says it is very unlike of me not to say a bit about this issue, which is hotly debated by both the mainstream and the alternative media.

My answer is simple and straight forward.

I am not the judge. I am not the accused neither am I the defense lawyer. I am also not the prosecutor neither am I the plaintiff or Saiful.

I am quite okay in taking care of all the private parts that has been given by nature especially the one that is located on the back part of my physic.

I don’t allow anybody to touch it unless I want to make it into political issue against some one.

I am not even a witness to the trial and have to do nothing with me especially so while it is on trial.

I don’t fancy the frenzy acts by many quarters setting up parallel courts on the street, in the office, in the coffee shop or anywhere else and above of it all I don’t enjoy seeing people suffering to this extent.

The accused have wife and children and for anyone to enjoy on the sufferings of others will normally bear the retribution themselves as nature has set the world and it’s live with equitable fairness.

That is what my religion says. I personally don’t have much knowledge on religions of others even though I do respect the existence of the faiths and believes.

Name calling on anyone including the accused destroys the basic fabric of rule of law and to me it’s legally wrong.

Why charge him court if the media and the parallel courts have already had the verdicts?

There is one salient point to be remembered by any member of civilized society; Respect the court which is in session, keep our dirty and smelly mouth shut and wait for the case to be over and verdict being read out.

After that, any one can comment as he likes. In the meanwhile just behave like we are in the public gallery of the court, that is keep quiet and say nothing.

To both the warring groups, this is what every one should observe; if we really want to see the Judiciary to retrieve its old glories as real independent and respected pillar of the Federation.

To Anwar supporters your demonstration does not change anything. You don’t have to worry; if Anwar is not guilty it will be decided to his favor. If he is proven guilty everyone knows what is going to be like...ie imprisonment.

But to the judges of the street parallel courts, for heaven sake please stop presiding on the issue. Just accept and respect the real and the actual court that is now in session.

If one has their personal verdict or preferences keep it inside and throw it once it is over and done. From then on please suit yourself.

Daniel, this is my answer. This is the correct answer even though it might not to your liking.

07 February 2010

The more we read and see about the happenings about politics in this country the more we feel the erratic pulses in us. The atmosphere is to some extent unbearable to consume and it is unchewable.

Malaysia is the only nation whereby almost every one of her population talks about politics and the percentage of the alertness of politics are almost to the optimum.

The issues normally would change after a while, and issues keep on changing endlessly….at least for another while until after the reconciliation point of compromise over these numerous issues in hand is found.

Would we or would we not find the agreeable solution in the next few months or years?

Every one seems to be in soul searching. The government is trying to overcome the lumber of historical misadventures which the current population is suffering.

The carelessness and rashness of managing politics and government by leaders since 2 and the half decades ago is now contributing adverse consequences to lives of all of us.

It seems everybody does not trust every one; “Trust nobody and suspect everybody!” said a friend, a retired government servant who came to sip ice coffee with few other friends just over a week ago.

“These politicians think that this country is their personal property, come in the office to order us what to do and to whom all opportunities should be given to. They dismantle the policies which they set. We implementers are not given the chance to implement the policies fairly, and they just want us to be the conduit of their ill intended personal gains” He said it clear.

“I tell you, no policy has been implemented in good demeanor. The reason is simple; some government servants themselves are compromising their principles and work ethics.”

“AND these are the set of officers who enjoy exceedingly as they get promoted for compromising the rule of law. This has been going on for more than 2 decades.” He mumbled.

“As long as changes are not done structurally let us just forget about good future. Every new leader who comes in is welcomed as we want to see him just do the changes without fear or favor but the same culture and conduct is nurtured. So what do we do?” He asked us.

To incidents of this nature, I normally do not know how to respond, as it has been the normal talk everywhere every time.

There has to a cause for every cause. Obviously this has been the scene for a long time but none in the administration seems to do anything about it. Everything was swept under the carpet and all were taken with no offence.

This culture slowly became deeply seated in the government and the Ministers who were supposed to oversea that policy set by the ruling party is implemented appropriately are not observed as they are themselves are part of the scandalous practices.

So the corrupted leaders and the distrusted officers work hand in glove as corruptors and hence the public outcries become the norm of the day.

BUT that could have been resolved by taking swift remedial actions, but the leaders both the outgoings and the incomings take no heed and all were taking for granted.

They keep on taking the friendliness and the forgiving public as weaknesses.

Corruption has been perceived to happen in every department and it is already the rule of the day that it is not an easy exercise to remedy the state of affairs any more.

We just take the latest happening in the Forestry department which the local TV Station highlighted for the past days.

It revealed another old but still and unresolved problem that is the theft of logs from the reserved jungles of Pahang and Selangor.

In Maran, Pahang team of enforcement authority went in the jungle tracking the thieves.

BUT by the time the enforcement officers reached the location all the thieves were already fleeing the site and only found over a million worth of logs neatly piled at the location.

The same thing happened at Batang Kali Selangor when the enforcement officers went in the jungle to arrest the thieves where they found nobody but only almost 2 million ringgit worth of logs found at 9 locations within the vicinity of the site.

Apparently the thieves had already fled many hours earlier as they managed to place the tractors at another location on a private land and the authority found problem of taking away all the machinery used for the thieving acts.

Why are all these happening and why the thieves managed to escape the scene before the enforcement team arrived at the site?

The answer is the act of thieving the logs involves the inside collaborators. The advance communication system we enjoy now is also enjoyed by this highly syndicated thieving.

The collaborators in the authority just need to text messages through sms to the thieves when the enforcement were ready to enter the jungle.

They share the loot and enjoy their acts as no one can get the sight of the thieves as ‘inside help’ give the thieves and expedient path to escape.

So we see that thieves are everywhere at every time and how could this be resolute?

So do we blame the rakyat for perceiving the government servant alike to politicians as corruptors?

They believe that their (Rakyat) wealth is being milked by the group in power right from the Putrajaya to the deep forest and jungles. They know that thieves are everywhere.

They are sick of witnessing thieves stealing government coffers, jet engines, and logs in the jungle and the thieves both the white and blue collar have already set a kind of standard operating procedure well structured as long as there exist cooperation from inside personnel with strong authority.

Thieving seems to be a good ‘business’ in this country as it involves every segment in the government and the private sectors.

As thieving are mostly protected by the inside people for cash advantages and the big and the white collared are protected by legislated law like OSA, the hope to eradicate corruptions and thieving is certainly unworkable and unattainable.

That is why the rakyat choose to act as they do not want to see their nation to be destroyed and thus the ball is now at the feet of the government leaders.

Maybe a large number of the leaders have to discharge their own selves from duty to ensure the move to resolve corruption and thieving acts to kick start and effectually workable.

I wish to remind every one including my humble self that ‘we won’t be able to walk straight in a crooked path. Conversely we can’t walk crooked in a straight path ’

Many may hate my guts for writing in this manner, but what other way of expression available for me? I am not a street demonstrator nor am I a member of the opposition party.

03 February 2010

One interesting development that follows Kelantan’s struggle for Oil Royalty from PETRONAS is the issue of the Federation Agreement 1948.

For those who are with the party who disagree to pay the State of Kelantan argue that the 1948 agreement on the Federation of Malaya provides no provision for the Federal Government to pay the state Royalty for the oil extracted from Kelantan waters beyond 3 nautical miles of the coast of Kelantan.

Some say the Federal Government has the full power to pay the state in whatever manner they choose and the State should just be thankful for whatever quantum they decide to offer.

Some leaders who put up argument are those who are high ups with strings of scrolls and decorations articulate the issue without understanding what the actual contents of the Federation agreement and the spirit of the Federation and Federal Government.

When the issue of Oil Royalty comes to the fore the understanding of the Federation is taken without looking at the right and proper angle and seems to confuse everyone.

Let us reminisce a bit of history so that we comprehend if not all at least a slight of it.

We must not talk in the dark and expediently take the Federation of Malaya agreement as the premise of argument against paying the oil royalty to any state including Kelantan.

When the British failed to go ahead with The Malayan Union in 1946 the power and the sovereignty of all the states and the power of the respective Malay Rulers were reinstated.

It means that each and individual state was sovereign (Berdaulat); both for the Federated and the UN Federated Malay states.

Federation of Malaya was the alternative where the individual sovereign states formed a Federation of all the sovereign states administered by a Federal government in Kuala Lumpur as the capital city for all the states.

The working committee for the formation of the Malayan Union (MU) was represented by 3 parties: The Malayan Union, the Malay Rulers and UMNO.

They took a long and hectic time of 5 months before it was tabled to British Cabinet and Parliament of Westminster Abbey, in London.

This working committee worked unremittingly writing and formulating the draft of the intended and proposed formation of the Federation of Malaya.

Finally on the 5th of December 1947 the draft was accepted by the British Cabinet and subsequently by the British Parliament on all contents of the drafted constitutions and the moral of the formation of the Federation of Malaya.

On the 1st of February 1948 the Federation of Malaya was formally formed in place of the Malayan Union which was strongly rejected by UMNO (The Malays).

The Malay Rulers were reinstated together with their respective States with sovereignty (Daulat), and subsequently working together with UMNO for total and complete independence which the Federation achieved ultimately on the 31st August 1957.

Meanwhile the Federation of Malaya which encompassed 9 sovereign Federated and non Federated Malay States plus the 2 Straits Settlement states of Penang and Malacca were under British Protectorate with Kuala Lumpur as the administrative centre of the newly found Federation.

Every state on its own until now is a sovereign state with individual House of Legislative called the State Assembly to legislate laws which normally goes in tandem with the Federal Legislative body, The House of Parliament and the Senate.

In the House of Senate each state would send 2 representatives proposed by the State Assemblies form all the states to make up the facet of the Federation of the sovereign states.

I would suggest that every ordinary rakyat including you and me as well as the leaders should take up civic courses on this topic to avoid too many wrong interpretations about the Federation Agreement of 1948.

Now, let us all ask what is the actual meaning and interpretations of Federation of Malaya?

How does it correlate with the issue of currently in debate (Oil Royalty/Wang Ehsan) between the politicians who are on the side of the rakyat and those on the side of their personal gains and greed?

Can the Federal leaders say that the states have no power in the comings and goings of the Federal Government?

I reckon I should deliberate it in 2 or 3 days from now. What I have just written is just the preamble of the actual issue that will be in my next posting.

Preface

Welcome to my blog. This site is where I am able to pen down my thoughts and opinions on various issues in particular on politics and other matters that are related to life within the border of our nation.